Chartiers Valley wrestlers win titles at Burgettstown
Despite wrestling short-handed, Chartiers Valley finished eighth in the Tri-State Scuffle Invitational held at Burgettstown. The Colts put three wrestlers on the podium.
A handful of Colts wrestlers were out with injuries, including two-time PIAA place winner Dylan Evans. His minor injury is expected to take 10 days for recovery.
Nevertheless CV head coach Bill Evans was pleased with his Colts, who scored 92 points.
The host Blue Devils won the team title with 217.5 points. West Allegheny finished in second place with a combined score of 179.
“Burgettstown and West Allegheny did a really nice job,” said Evans. “It was a great tournament, well run with possibly the best hospitality room of any event we attend. Just an overall great environment.”
CV’s Josh Sarasnick won the 215-pound weight classification. He scored a 12-2 major decision against Vitali Daniels from Bentworth in the finals.
“Josh’s match was a pretty dominant performance,” Evans said. “He did a really good job of forcing his opponent to wrestle his match. The last time they wrestled, it was really close, but this time Josh got on offense and scored early, which broke the match wide open and allowed him to relax a little. He really took control of the match.”
Sarasnick pinned his first three opponents. He dispatched of Caleb Kimberland in 40 seconds, Noah Phillips from Southmoreland in 1:12 and Mitchell Cook from Fort Cherry in 1:18 before defeating Caleb Chimar from Greensburg Salem, 7-1, in the semifinals.
Brady Joling captured the 113-pound division for the Colts. He edged Jonathan Baiano from South Fayette, 1-0, in the championship match.
“Brady did a great job controlling the pace.” Evans said. “His ability to be patient and win the close ones is fantastic, but we are definitely going to want to open that one up more in the future. He has improved greatly this season, so we need him to open up and trust himself out there.”
Joling scored a major decision, 11-0, against Bentworth’s Max Ivcic in the semifinals. He pinned Skylar Wisdom of Hopewell in 49 seconds and Southmoreland’s Kayli Redmond in 1:35 in his previous matches.
Chartiers Valley’s CC Beatty earned runner-up honors at 160. He dropped a major decision, 14-3, to West Allegheny’s Shawn Taylor in the finals.
“It was a tough final against a really tough opponent but we let (Taylor) dictate too much of where we wrestled in that match. Too many 50/50 positions, and a little too reactive,” said Evans. “We need to get CC to be more proactive, wrestle a more fundamental match, and keep ourselves in the positions where we know that CC has a higher percentage of scoring.”
Beatty scored a major decision, 11-1, over Fort Cherry’s Braedon Welsh in the semifinals.
In his previous bouts, Beatty recorded falls. He pinned West Allegheny’s Ibrokhim Jalilov in 26 seconds, Upper St. Clair’s Vladislav Bykov in 1:19 and Shaler’s Michael Ulery in 3:07.
Upper St. Clair produced two, fifth-place finishers when Ben Cedar won a 9-4 decision over Caleb Springer of Greenville in a 152-pound consolation bout, and Tyler Shields pinned Angelo Markey from Highlands in 2:43 in a 172-pound consolation bout.
The Panthers finished 15th in the team standings with 60 points.
In addition to Baiano’s second-place showing, James Anderson and Domenic Oliastro gained spots on the podium for South Fayette.
Anderson earned an 11-1 major decision against Burgettstown’s Dylan Slovick to take third place in the 120-pound weight class.
Oliastro won a 7-4 decision over Colman Carpenter for fifth place at 132 pounds for the Lions, who finished 22nd in the team standings.